WB Entry 5 : AULD LAGG'S DAMNATION (2013)

AULD LAGG'S DAMNATION

And Sir Robert Grierson wrote in his rent collection book:
O Lord, we’re aye ganging and we’re aye gettin’;
We should aye be comin’ to Thee, but we’re aye forgettin’.
~~~
Some say as Auld Lagg lay dying, in the Turnpike House on a dark and squally night,
out on the Solway Firth, the same waters Maggie Wilson had been drowned, a small
boat was heading back to its berth. In the light of the full moon the crew saw a
craft heading out to sea.
As it came closer they saw it was no ordinary vessel but a great black coach and
horses, galloping into the mouth of the Nith estuary accompanied by coachmen and
outriders bearing flaming torches.
As they passed, the captain called out,
'Where are thee bound? Where are thee form?'
The reply received was a dread cackle and,
'To tryst wi' Lag in Dumfries we are bound! From Hell we have come!
~~~
And some said that in his dying delirium he was visited by wights and wraiths,
'Auld Lagg! Cruel Lagg! Heartless Lagg!' whispered Maggie's ghost into the ear of
the dying man.
'Leave me be, spectre..' the croaked reply.
'Whither do ye go now?' groaned the ghost, 'To drown maer poor old auld women in
the Solway? To torment and torture those tha' wid nae pray for thy king?'
'Damned ghoul! Out fiend!'
'Damnation, aye, damnation is the word. ye auld snick-drawin dog! This luckless
hour will send ye linkin to thy pit!'
~~~
And they told of an old woman, Margaret McLachlan who was tied on a post by the
sea. And further up the from her tied in a similair fashion was the younger
Margaret Wilson.
They had been caught saying the wrong prayers and had been presented to Sir Robert
Grierson the assize of Lag who sentenced them to be drowned. The idea being that
seeing the old woman drown first would make the younger one repent.
As the tide rose and her end approached, a dragoon Major pulled Maggie Wilson's
head above the water and demanded , 'Will ye say a prayer for the king?'
She answered, 'I wish salvation of all men and the damnation of none.'
A bystander called, 'Dear Margaret, for all of love, say God save the King!'
She answered, 'God save him, if he will, for it is his salvation I desire.'
Her family cried, 'She said it so! Let her be, untie her we beg thee!'
But Auld Lagg stepped forward and swore,
'Damn’d bitch, we do not want such prayers; tender the oaths to her.'
Margaret shut her lips tight and the Major thrust her head into the water.
~~~
The folk of Galloway tell of Auld Lagg leading his dragoon's into the hills
around Carsphairn and where they found men reading the Bible they shot or tortured
them to death. People would come to their doors and listen as the screams
echoed down from the glens, then shake their heads and say,
'Auld Lagg tends his flock.'
And when he came down to Dalry, Lag rounded up the men and forced them to
swear allegiance to the King and dismissing them snarled
'Now you are a fold full of clean beasts, you may go home.'
~~~
Along the Nith, fast lights were seen, or so they said, on that dark and storm
tossed night. A craft moving so fast it defied all ken. And those that beheld it
felt the ice of fear on them and made signs against evil. From Glencaple to
Whitesands they closed and locked their doors. It was an ill omened night and the
devil's work was being done.
~~~
Some say an old crow perched on the windowsill of the bedroom of Turnpike House
where the old man lay dying and it said,
'Auld Lagg! Do thee know me? I will sit on thy coffin 'er thee die and tell all of
thy deeds. They will say thy wine did turn to blood 'er it hit the glass. The
horses that pull thy funeral coach will die in harness. Grass will ne'er grow over
thy grave! Wait now, be quiet Lag, be still. It is not long now. Thy raptur'd hour
approaches.'
~~~
And the folk of Galloway called it 'The Killing Time', when King's men hunted the
Covenanters through the hills, killing them where they found them in secret prayer.
People avoided the hills after that, for many years, fearful of what would be found
up there. They called it the 'Bone Harvest' and told their children to stay down in
the glens, because up on the hilltops was where the monster Auld Lagg stalked and
the bodies of his victims were still lying up there lost and unburied.
~~~
And they told of the crow cawing
'Do thee know what now comes for thee? Auld Lagg should know Auld Nick when he sees
him, he did his work often enough. Well no matter, they will soon be here to take
thee. What was it all for? Those people you killed and tortured in the name of a
king. A king that was evicted in the Glorious Revolution? If ever killing were for
naught, it was in this. You must have thought ye were doing God's own work in those
far off days, Auld Lagg, when all along you were doing the work of Auld Hornie!'
~~~
And now the children played a game called 'The Lag'. Where one was a beast with a
prominent long snout, pointed ears and bulging eyes. All the better for watching,
listening and snuffling for Covenanters in the Galloway Hills. They took turns in
being the beast and would hunt each other through the hills and heather, laughing
as they went.
Their parents would not stop them, by now many years had passed and they rarely
found bones up there.
~~~
And in Dumfries they say, a young boy called Fergus chanced to look out his bedroom
window at night and saw the coach and horses bound for the Turnpike House. Fire
burned in the horses eyes as they sped through the street, there hooves not making
a single note on the cobblestones. The outriders held their torches high, casting
red shadows, their cloaks pulled tight around them and their hoods covering their
faces. The coachman lashed his whip and yelled,
'Make haste, Auld Lagg waits! Let nothing prevent thy speed!'
~~~
Some say the old man finally stirred as an eerie whistle blew. He did keep a monkey
up in the Cat's Cradle tower of the Turnpike House and whenever a visitor came or
went it had been trained to blow a whistle. A coach pulled outside and whoever
stepped out of it terrified the monkey into blowing louder and louder on the
whistle. So loud and panicked was the shrill piping that it sounded like the
creature was blowing fit to burst its lungs.
Sir Robert tried to rise from the bed, to summon servants, but by now he was too
weak to move.
~~~
It is told that after the revolution was a time bad for old Jacobites. Auld Lagg
was fined and imprisoned for forgery. But soon he was freed and went to live at
Rockhall. There he grew older and older until many folk had forgotten what he had
done and those that remembered said he feared to die because that would be the day
he was called to answer.
And so he buried most his kin, and did not die, but went on and on, but no man can
live forever, no matter how much he fears what comes after.
~~~
Some say a heavy foot on the stairs was heard. Impatient horses whined and blew in
the yard below, stamping their feet and shaking their harness. Each creaking step
grew closer. A wayward wind blew through the room and the windows burst open.
Something broke on the floor. The whistling went on, but the house did not wake.
Auld Lagg could not close his eyes.
~~~
And they said the whistle blew and blew, louder and louder until it seemed that all
the sound in the world was in that whistle. And that when Auld Lagg died and was
driven to hell by Auld Nick in a phantom coach the monkey continued to blow its
whistle until the household servants strangled it and it haunts the place to this
day.
Some say Sir Robert was born to hell in satan's own coach and tormented there
forever more, for the murders he committed in the name of King and God, justified
and zealous, sure of his rightness. Better this than a man lived to a ripe old age
and remained unpunished, they said, even on his death bed, for the crimes of half a
century ago?
This may or may not be so, but in any room in Turnpike House, in the darkest time
of the night, you may hear a thin whistling sound that will grow louder and louder
until it seems to fill thy head completely. The ghost of his pet monkey, cursed
until judgment day to warn the world what awaits those that lead a life like Auld
Lagg's.